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black bars on the brute's hide, the flaming eyes, and the long cruel teeth being plainly visible, framed in the hole which its claws had made.

The timbers of the roof bent and cracked anew under the unwonted weight, and then, with the agility of a cat, He of the Hairy Face leaped lightly down, and was in among them before they knew. The striped hide was slightly wounded by the upthrust spears, but the shock of the beast's leap bore all who had resisted it to the floor. The tiger never stayed to use its jaws. It sat up, much in the attitude of a kitten playing with a ball of worsted dangled before its eyes, and striking out rapidly and with unerring aim, speedily disposed of all its victims. Che' Sĕman and his two sons, Âwang and Ngah, were the first to fall. Then Îang, Che' Sĕman's wife, was flung reeling backward against the wall with her skull crushed out of all resemblance to any human member by a single, playful buffet from one of those mighty pads. Kassim, Pôtek, and Abdullah fell before the tiger in quick succession; and Mînah, the little girl who had nestled against her father for protection, lay now beneath his body, sorely wounded, almost demented by terror, but still alive and conscious. Mat, cowering on the shelf overhead, and gazing fascinated at the carnage going on below him, was the only inmate of the house who remained uninjured.

He of the Hairy Face killed quickly and silently while there were yet some alive to resist him. Then, purring gently, he passed from one crumpled form